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Hi, my name is Corinne, I’m an academic and have spent the majority of my life living in other countries.  I have, however, spent the last 15 years in this country whilst my children finished school and college.  Prior to that we’d lived in Athens Greece for 15 years.  As a child I travelled with my parents abroad as a “forces brat” and then at 18 I set off with a backpack, £50 and a single ticket to Naples on the then Dan Air, known as Dan Dare for it’s air safety record.  I came home 22 years later with my 2 children in tow.  In that time I backpacked around Europe living in hippy communes in Stommeln, Germany, caves in Crete, under olive trees in Saphos, a snazzy garden flat in Athens, a student hostel in Luttrech in Holland and many, many more places in-between.

I met my partner Terry in England and we are now a family of 6 children and 2 grandchildren.  As is the case in modern blended families we see some of them all the time, some sometimes and sadly some never.  We’re working on that.  Both Terry and I see the world with a harmonious eye but not necessarily an eye that other people see through. To that effect we are moving to Bulgaria to set up what Terry refers to laughingly as Terrys Kingdom.  Perhaps that’s what I should have called the blog!

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I’d like to say this is a recent shot but it’s about 4 years old.  We don’t often have our photos taken, we see each other all the time so there doesn’t seem much point!

6 thoughts on “Home”

  1. Hi Corrine and Terry,
    Glad I stumbled over comment on the one Facebook page. I moved to UK from South Africa 4 years ago but as it is with Terry I dream of living off the grid. My partner (Cheryl) will back me all the way as long as she can have a flushing toilet and electricity Lol. So Bulgaria looks a great compromise. We are still a few years away from taking the plunge, need to save to buy a place.

    I look forward to following your blog.
    Kind regards and best wishes for you and your family for 2017.
    Graham and Cheryl

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    1. Welcome to the blog Graham and Cheryl
      I feel excited for you both. Please assure Cheryl that flushing toilets are pretty common, as is electricity. You may need to do some updating. We had a bathroom where every single thing except the bath had been removed. However all the plumbing was in tact, we simply replaced it. It is a wonderful life and if there is anything we can help with just let us know. Best of wishes for a wonderful 2017 to you and yours
      Corinne and Terry

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  2. Hey Corinne and Terry..thanks for sharing this link. I’m very much looking forward to reading this is feeling the determination to make my own bulgarian dream come true xx

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  3. Hello. I’ve just seen your blog and just HAD to comment :). I hope to buy a property in the next few years in Bulgaria (I’ve got about 5 villages on my list so far that are strong contenders). I won’t move over full-time for probably 10 more years, sadly. So to satisfy my love for Bulgaria, I am finding every blog I can and reading every entry! I am slowly working through yours but it’s a slow process because they’re so long (a good thing, though!). I have a question… What drew you to choose Gradishte? Or, if you’ve explained it in a blog that I haven’t seen it, feel free to send a link to it.
    Also, I work (and will work in the future) online as a TEFL teacher. I need a line-based internet and trying to find villages with this is proving difficult. Does Gradishte have this?

    Thank you and I shall now go and read some more! 🙂

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    1. Hi,
      thanks for your comment. It was the house not particularly the village in the beginning. We’d already decided what we did want and what we didn’t want so the areas we first visited were ones we’d identified via a number of research mechanisms. Amongst them, Bulgarian students, RightMove Bulgaria, pages such as The Pavlikeni Post, Living in Bulgaria, Ex pats in Bularia, blogs, forums and of course good old auntie Google. We wanted a renovation project, outbuildings, a working well and land. The village had to be a living village and Gradishte has a population of 2000 and is thriving whilst still being very peaceful and community minded. There are enough small shops to sustain us if the village were cut off and 3 cafes and 2 bars and a garden restaurant. 7 minutes drive away is the town of Levski with chemists, banks, trains, buses, shops, fresh produce market, supermarkets, restaurants, bars and even some hotels. We are equidistant to Veliko Tarnovo (the old and beautiful former capital city) and Pleven both with everything a city offers. We are 3 hours from the coast in one direction and 3 hours to Sofia and the borders to Serbia and Romania. We’re 1.5 hours to Ruse and the Guirgui border with Romania. It’s 7 hours to Greece and Turkey. But it all came down to the crumbling orange facade of a traditional Bulgarian village house. We’d seen the house on RightMove Bulgaria and had ear marked it along with about 8 other properties in other villages. It was the last house we viewed. As the agent hacked his way into the property and then a small pathway up the garden Terry and I looked at each other at the same time and said – this is the one. It was derelict, in need of a full renovation and the outbuildings were crumbling. The neighbours came around and bought us food, the shop keeper fell over himself to help us, kids yelled hello in thick Bulgarian accents. Horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, geese, hens were all out on the common land or being herded up the lanes. But village people are quiet and so the garden was and remains a quiet place where I forget there is anyone else on the planet. In short paradise. We are lucky enough to have 4G super fast fibre optic broadband and pay 200 leva a year for it! Mind blowing

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